In association with the Olympia Bowl and the Borderland Pinball Collective

This is the official callout thread for the Hawkesbury Flea Fair. As always since 2014, the Hawkesbury Flea Fair is a free event for the collectors by the collectors held on the first weekend in June every year. It’s been a long drawn out winter and the time is coming to cut loose.

* We'll be extending the Olympia Bowl's liquor license to the outer grounds of the property.* Camping trailers are welcome to remain onsite in the parking lot over night as long as they remain attached to their vehicles.* This event will be “mostly” closed from the public as it was prior to Canada PinCon. We won’t be advertising locally, but locals are welcome to pop in to bowl or participate in the tournament.* Bowling will be available at a very decent price for the whole family.* I've made sure the event is absolutely free for everyone. The only thing we have to do is buy beer. If you don't drink, buy your friend a beer. If you're too cheap to buy a $4.25 bottle of beer - stay home lol. If you're honestly too poor, I'll will buy you a beer.* I welcome someone to operate the CNPO - Canadian National Pinball Open tournament in the private room. Contact me for more information if you are interested.* It's totally not a requirement, but I'd like to put a secured donation box in the facility offering you the ability to donate $5 to the bowling alley for their generosity. Ray who is the nicest man on the planet owns the Olympia Bowl and I'd like to make sure he gets a little something. Dan the bar man who leases the bar, has been very generous in letting us do our thing. Our event supports the facility at the beginning of their slow season and it would be nice to see bowling alleys survive for the next generation.The flea market itself will be outside on the Olympia Bowl grounds. Anyone is welcome to sell anything arcade related. I’ll have the 3 main tents up and ready again for free. We would like to encourage you to set up your own tempo, tradeshow tent, table, chairs, coolers and radios. The main tents will fill up quick. I’ll make a perimeter so if you choose to sell out of your trunk or a cube van that will be fine as well.The Hawkesbury Flea Fair is our thing and we make it what we choose. It exists because individuals like yourselves bring pins so if you don’t provide - there is no event. The venue will hold a “maximum” of 49 machines inside to my interests. It can hold more, but I’d rather maintain a smooth flow. In 2016 we had 23 pinball machines and 220+ collectors. It would be fantastic to bump those numbers. The last thing I want to see is anyone feeling obligated to bring more than one pin. If you’re selling pinball or arcade machines, you are welcome to bring as many as you choose. I will be bringing one myself with a buddy.

There are a few additional concepts up my sleeve. I will be expanding on this thread as developments pan out.If you would like to help setup, hold your own event at the Hawkesbury Flea Fair or do something special please feel free to contact me anytime. Bands, food venders and vid tournaments welcome upon prior request.

If your not sure what to bring, but guaranteed be bringing something just post +1 PIN and I'll add you to this list. I don't want to see more than 48 pins in the facility. Any more than that sounds like a Stephanie's Motel sidewalk after party which seems to be the possible upcoming tradition.

Brewmanager and I just got off the phone and are discussing a tournament and the possibilities.Walt could help us set the admin part up ahead of time. Run a classics tournament that is 1 day only.

Limited entries, low key, low stress, short time-frame etc... Thinking about it and will talk to Chris about it as well.Would see if all the regulars who have helped run it in the past would be up to assist again as well. Silver and I are texting on it.

Awesome pins Butch and Cap! When you know for sure the quantity you're bringing, I'll put your names down and add you to the list. When you know for sure what games you are bringing I'll add that information to the list as well.

Woody has confirmed via private message that he will be bringing his Super Chexx.

Sounds like we can be naming a champion on the chalkboard beside the game who can be challenged over the weekend. The winner can be titled in the thread after the flea fair. No tournament or anything, just find the current winner hanging around and offer up a match.

A long time buddy of mine Jason who lives up my street, caught the pinball bug back at Canada PinCon 2017. He brought his wife and children and they enjoyed themselves immensely. They returned the next year to Canada PinCon 2018 where they made the decision to get an EM family pin for their home.

As last summer past, we kept an eye out for an affordable first machine and somewhere in early August we came up with one. A friend of mine contacted me about a decent machine at an amazing price. I told Jason and we contacted the seller. After setting a time and date to pay a visit, it was only a matter of waiting until the weekend. We all have different stories on the acquisition of our first pin. Jason had the childhood "wait until Christmas" story. I love that feeling. You don't get that too much anymore at my age.

We had the perfect pickup story. It was an early beautiful quiet summer morning with full sun and dew on the grass. Jason and I went to Tim Horton's, grabbed a full tank of gas and hit the road in my Dodge Caravan we prepped the night before. The seller was a non-collector living in the middle of nowhere on the way to St. Eustache. Upon inspection the game was in ok shape. It did have a few bugs, but the nice thing about EMs everyone knows is if its complete, you can make it work.

When we got it back to my garage and in good light we noticed the seller had lubricated all the moving parts. Ugh. Bringing a long story short, I did most of the cleaning and fiddling to leave Jason with tightening and adjusting the switches. He had a strong interest in fixing this machine and did a lot of research. Casually over the next couple months it slowly came back to life. It took a few early morning coffees and afternoon beers and eventually he brought it to working condition. Since then his family have enjoyed their first pin and his son still plays it daily.

Jason will proudly be bringing his 1972 Gottlieb Jungle along with his family to the 2019 Hawkesbury Flea Fair.